Seeking an edge footing, IE Corp. buys Baselayer

Diversified data center equipment maker Intermountain Electric Corp. has bought modular data center builder Baselayer Technology for an undisclosed amount. Privately held IE, which is making its first acquisition, wants to be a bigger player in the edge datacenter market and sees Baselayer as its ticket.

In announcing the deal, IE executives said they will invest in Baselayer, “evolving the product line and offering customers the option of custom products.”

IE, which started in 1985, makes modular ISO 9001-compliant components ranging from skid-mounted power systems and enclosures to switchgear and data center systems. The acquisition gives IE products and services including core data and power modules, edge and micro edge data centers as well as a mission-critical service team and off-the-shelf edge designs.

Baselayer has built 400 data-center modules totaling more than 200MW of installed capacity in North America, Europe, and Asia.

It is a good segment to be in. According to industry analysts at 451 Research, the market for prefabricated modular data centers is will expand at a five-year compound annual rate of 14.4 percent through 2021, when it will have reached $4.4 billion.

Perhaps just as attractive to IE as that market growth is Runsmart, Baselayer’s data-center monitoring and management software. With it, operators can measure the use, cost, and health of the modular centers. Tied into a customer’s global infrastructure, Runsmart can monitor conventional data centers, generators, chiller plants and other infrastructure as well.

Baselayer was born in 2014 when IO Data Centers divested its data center infrastructure management software and modular data operations.

The acquisition comes amid forecasts of increasing demand for data center infrastructure. A forecast in the 2020 State of the Edge report predicts $146 billion in annual spending on edge IT and data center technology by 2028, rising by a 35% CAGR.